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What To Do if You Win the $550 Million Powerball Jackpot

Written by: TheStreet Staff11/28/12 - 12:00 PM EST

Tickers in this article:
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NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- If you're lucky enough to win Wednesday's $550 million Powerball jackpot, and you're not already a seasoned investor, you'll need to learn a lot overnight. In fact, even if you are a seasoned investor, you still might have a lot to learn about taxes, estate planning and managing your new found stardom .

On the subject of investing, consider that the Securities Investor Protection Corporation only insures your brokerage account up to $500,000. That means you'll need to take extra care in choosing where you park your money before you even think about what to invest in .

Also, your new-found riches may immediately elevate you from the 99% to the 1%, or quite possibly from the 1% to the 0.1%. If the fiscal cliff didn't mean anything to you before, perhaps it will now.

TheStreet has reached out to our stable of money managers, contributors and market experts for insight on how to invest a multi-million dollar windfall.

Finding a brokerage-house/steward that can handle investments in the hundreds of millions of dollars :

My suggestion would be to find one that isn't publicly traded and has a stellar reputation for customer service and not putting pressure on the customer.

An example would be Fidelity Investments. They have conveniently located offices that are pleasant to visit, and they will offer you a generous number of free trades when you open a large enough account.

Where to invest money with respect to today's political and financial climate? :

Begin with the stocks or preferred shares of the biggest, best-of-breed U.S. companies. They should pay at least a 2% dividend yield. I would suggest they subscribe to a respected investment educational service.

You should consider investing $10 million to $20 million with the 20 best money managers (Registered Investment Advisors) or mutual fund managers you can find, based on how they've performed. Bill Gross' PIMCO total return fund would be a good example.

And ask your brokerage firm to provide you with an "Asset Allocation Strategy" or a diversified "Financial Plan" and a list of the best-performing funds for each asset class.

Anything else that a lottery-winner would have to "learn overnight" :

Learn to ask a lot of questions and learn when to do "nothing -- sitting on your hands while you slowly, carefully decide what to do with your winnings.

Ask successful people for a CPA recommendation, because the first thing you'll need to do after you verify your Powerball winnings is to calculate how much you need to pay in taxes. This way you can set aside enough money in cash or cash equivalents.